Manila - Four children are missing and feared dead after a drug addict set a fire that razed a central Manila shantytown yesterday, leaving thousands homeless, a city official said.
The blaze in the squatter colony in the Tondo section of Manila burned 600 shanties and forced out 1,200 families, Mr Benjamin Abalos, head of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, said. He said the fire had been started by a drug addict, who is unaccounted for.